EllRay Jakes is a Rock Star! Read Free Page B

anyone would think that being a geology professor is boring, my dad’s office is pretty cool. The wall opposite his desk is completely covered with wood shelves that are so narrow an apple would feel fat sitting there. All my dad’s favorite small rock specimens are on these shelves, and each one is carefully labeled. The rocks are from all over the world—Asia, South America, North America—and he collected each specimen himself.
    My dad has been everywhere.

    My favorite shelves are the ones nearest the window, because those hold the crystals. Dad put the crystals there so that sunlight will shine on them first thing in the morning. He says it’s a nice way to start the day.
    Crystals grow on or in rocks, and they are like diamonds, only better—because they’re much bigger, and they come in so many different colors: blue, green, red, orange, and yellow. Even the gray and brown crystals are awesome, not to mention the clear ones that are like ice that never melts.
    And crystals look like somebody carved them, only they grew that way. Nature was the carver.
    But my dad was the guy who collected them, and he has a story for each one.
    My dad’s rock specimens are his life scrapbook, practically.
    I just wish some of the kids in my class could see them. Maybe then they’d stop bragging about their dads’ ATVs, and their money, and their solid gold jewelry, and how everything’s a contest that they are winning.
    The kids in my class would see how AWESOME my dad’s crystals are.
    And I would win.
    That’s when I get my crystal-clear idea.
    I will borrow six of my dad’s crystals—only six!—from his office this very minute, and sneak them up to my room. Then I’ll put each crystal in its very own white tube sock for protection, so they won’t get knocked around inside my backpack when I take them to school tomorrow.
    But before that, I’ll spread out the other crystals on my dad’s shelf so Mom won’t see any empty places in case she goes into the office before he gets home late tomorrow night.
    Then tomorrow, Tuesday, I will ask Ms. Sanchez if I can show everyone the crystals, and talk—okay, brag—about them, and she will say yes, because crystals are so scientific and beautiful. Everyone in my class will be totally AMAZED and IMPRESSED, and it will be the best Tuesday I ever had in my life. I might even get extra credit!

    Then I will take all the crystals home tomorrow afternoon and sneak them back onto the shelf so they will be there when he gets home. He will never know that six of his crystals took a field trip to Oak Glen Elementary School—to make both him and me look good.
    There is no way this plan can go wrong!

6
    RARE AND VALUABLE
    I walk to the front of the class on Tuesday afternoon.
    I am holding my backpack against my chest with very cold hands.
    â€œAren’t we a little old for show-and-tell?” Cynthia asks in her most sarcastic voice.
    â€œWe’re never too old to learn something new,” Ms. Sanchez says. “And EllRay has some truly beautiful things to show us. Mr. Jakes?” she says, pretending to introduce me to the class.
    â€œHi,” I mumble. I feel very embarrassed and shy, even though I know secret stuff about almost all the kids sitting in front of me:
    1. How Jared Matthews sometimes sleeps with masking tape on his hair to make it lie flat.
    2. How Stanley Washington has already started saving up for contact lenses.
    3. How Emma McGraw sometimes wishes she had a baby brother or sister, or at least a pet.
    4. How Fiona McNulty doesn’t really have weak ankles, even though she says she does.

    â€œHi,” a couple of kids say, curious in advance.
    â€œWhat do you have to share with us?” Ms. Sanchez asks, trying to give me a hint about what to say next.
    But I have it all planned—and rehearsed. I plunk my backpack on Ms. Sanchez’s desk and unzip it. “I